Give Negron chance to make Everglades deal that’s fair for all sides
Last summer, incoming Florida Senate President Joe Negron stepped into a controversy over Everglades restoration with an offer that no one should have been able to refuse.
The whole idea of fixing the South Florida water management system and restoring the Everglades was about to fall apart. The sugar industry didn’t want to sell land for a key component that would move clean water south from Lake Okeechobee to Everglades National Park. Advocates for implementing the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) were becoming convinced that the only hope for South Florida was to get rid of sugar altogether.
It is a fact that more water flows into Lake O from the north than the lake can store. That’s why there is an Everglades south of the lake — a broad river of grass to carry the excess lake water south.
It is a fact that Florida Bay and the Everglades need that flow to survive. Miami-Dade County needs it to protect its water supply against salt water intrusion. The coastal estuaries need it so they won’t be the only outlet for destructive discharges when the lake gets too full.
If it was rare weather events that made our water management system not work, then not working would be a rare event. Instead, it’s become the norm.
Buying land south of the lake is not about building a big reservoir to dump Lake Okeechobee water into when the current system has forced us into an emergency. The purpose is to build an interconnected system of store, treat and move water that keeps us from continuously ending up in an emergency situation.
Negron asked us to back off while he quietly negotiated a land purchase that would make it possible to send clean water south and at the same time was fair to both the big sugar companies and taxpayers and allowed sugar growing to continue south of the lake.
The answer from Big Sugar has been to double down on attacks on Negron and to insist that Everglades National Park and the southern end of Florida — where all that water used to go — doesn’t need it and doesn’t want it.
The essence of problem-solving is being willing to negotiate. Negron is in a position to do that. Why don’t we let him instead of trying to discredit him?